


The Challenge

by AliceInKinkland



Category: Original Work
Genre: Dominance Struggle, F/F, Face-Sitting, Fic Exchange, Humiliation, Pinned by the Wrists, Post-Apocalypse, Public Sex, Rough Sex, Sex After Fighting/Battle, Submission as a Consequence for Losing a Contest, Tearing clothes, Wrestling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-11
Updated: 2018-04-11
Packaged: 2019-04-21 17:06:53
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,373
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14289417
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AliceInKinkland/pseuds/AliceInKinkland
Summary: Ruby will not lose. She cannot. And really, she thinks, looking over at Stella, she can take her.Take her in more ways than one, because this is a Challenge, after all.





	The Challenge

**Author's Note:**

  * For [HostisHumaniGeneris](https://archiveofourown.org/users/HostisHumaniGeneris/gifts).



> For Smut Swap 2018, for HostisHumaniGeneris, who requested "Two female post-apocalyptic gang leaders fight it out to decide who is top dog and avert a war over territory/resources/whatever, with the caveat that the winner can do whatever they want to the loser." This was a lot of fun to write, hope you like the direction I took it in!

They meet in the desert.

Neither Ruby’s gang nor Stella’s live in the desert proper, the flat, cracked expanse of dry red earth whose name was lost long ago, during the Reckoning. Stella and her people live up in the mountains to the west, because they want to be as close as possible to the sky, and by extension, the wider universe. Ruby and her people live to the south, their village built into and around the sprawling electronic waste site that forms the backbone of their lives.

One of the rules of the Challenge, however, is that the combattants meet on neutral territory, and so here they are, Ruby’s gang and Stella’s, everyone assembled apart from the children and the few adults watching over them, kicking up clouds of dusty red as they wait for the Challenge to begin.

Neutral ground also means the Challenge cannot take place on the disputed land or resource in question, although Ruby has heard that on the other side of the mountains there are other gangs who battle for cities and train tracks and waterways on the sites themselves. In any case, the resource in question this time, the freshwater spring the two gangs have fought over for the past three years, is not even in view, hidden somewhere to the southwest behind shimmers of desert heat.

Ruby can almost taste that clear, sweet water on her tongue already. She will not lose. She cannot. And really, she thinks, looking over at Stella, she can take her. _Take her in more ways than one_ , she smiles to herself, because it is a Challenge, after all.

Across the ring neatly drawn on the ground, Stella knots her short dress, sun-bleached with silhouetted constellations, up between her legs. Ruby, in turn, adjusts her woven-plastic tunic, embroidered to resemble the wiring of a circuit board. In battle Ruby would wear her helmet, her spiked knuckle-weapons made of spark plugs and scrap leather, her daggers. But in a Challenge, both combattants have only their bodies.

Their bodies as weapons, and their bodies as collateral. 

Ruby has been to Challenges, although she has never taken part. It was at a Challenge that she first saw a strap-on, she recalls with a slight smile. Other, uninvolved gangs come sometimes, to enjoy the show. None are here this time; it is simply Ruby’s people and Stella’s people. Ruby likes it that way—they can get down to business.

Stella looks different than Ruby remembers—sturdier, more self-assured, almost cocky. It’s that cockiness that stops Ruby from being too worried—Stella will try something fancy, leave herself vulnerable, and Ruby will take her down. And then—Ruby allows her gaze to travel down Stella’s body, the curves of her—pert breasts, tight stomach, muscular thighs. Her mind spins with possibilities.

A man from Stella’s side is hitting an instrument, a set of some kind of baked-clay windchimes.

Ruby and Stella step into the ring.

“You look like you could use a bath,” says Stella. Her hair is cropped short, and down the left side of her face is a tattoo of some kind of creature Ruby has never seen, shooting upwards from streams of starlight which cascade down Stella’s neck. Perhaps it’s one of the aliens Stella’s people worship, the ones who will one day supposedly whisk them all off this dying planet and show them the wonders of the galaxy.

Ruby almost wishes she was foolish enough to dream of something like that.

Ruby adjusts her own hair, makes sure it is secured tightly to her head, nothing to grab on to. “Well,” she says, “good thing I’m about to win me a spring.”

“Cute,” says Stella, and then she lunges. Ruby doesn’t expect it, not yet, but she blocks Stella’s arms in time, using Stella’s own momentum to flip her around, dragging her arm up behind her back. 

Stella grunts, breathes hard, and then kicks Ruby between the legs. Ruby stumbles backwards, letting Stella’s arm go, but she’s prepared by the time Stella attacks again, pushing Stella backwards until she lands on her ass on the hard, cracked ground.

Ruby jumps on top of her, but Stella flips her over, and they tussel like that for a while, neither one gaining the upper hand. Stella’s body against Ruby threatens to make her distracted, picturing what will happen once she wins, but Ruby knows better than to let herself think of that just yet. They were be time enough as soon as she’s got Stella beneath her for good.

Then Stella goes for Ruby’s throat, digging her nails in as she cuts off Ruby’s airflow. Ruby twists, turns, and reaches for Stella’s nipples, twisting painfully hard even as she slams her shoulder into Stella’s collarbone. Stella gasps, her grip loosening, and Ruby slams her backwards onto the ground.

Ruby looks up, smiling triumphantly at her people, who watch, rapt, waving their flags of salvaged wires and touchscreen-glass beads.

She smiles once more, and realizes only too late the mistake she has made, taking her eyes off Stella even for a minute. Stella flips Ruby onto her stomach, yanking Ruby’s arm behind her, pulled up at a painful angle, and wraps her own free arm around Ruby’s neck.

Ruby surges upwards with all the strength she can muster, but Stella holds firm.

Stella’s arm tightens around her neck, her other hand pinning Ruby’s wrist so far up her back that Ruby can feel how close her bone is to breaking. She feels the knowledge of her defeat settle into her, a coldness spreading throughout her body that reminds her of the last time she was caught in an acid ice storm. She tries once more to rally, tensing her muscles and struggling against Stella’s two holds, but Stella doesn’t budge. Ruby feels herself growing light-headed. The shouts and jeers of the crowd all around them fade behind the pounding of her ears.

Ruby slaps the ground once, twice, thrice. Tapping out. She lets her body go limp in Stella’s arms. Stella releases her, letting her fall unceremoniously on her face, ground rough against her cheek. Ruby can feel Stella shift above her, sitting back on her heels, still straddling Ruby’s body.

From Stella’s side of the crowd, Ruby hears cheers, celebration. Her own people have fallen silent. They know what comes next.

She has lost, and must face the consequences of her defeat. To do otherwise would mean inviting a war they can ill afford.

“This weakling thought she could defeat me,” yells Stella, and Ruby squeezes her eyes shut, shame making them prickle with tears that she must not shed. “Look where she is now—underneath me!” She pulls Ruby’s hair loose and fists her hand through it, forcing Ruby’s head up. “Look into the faces of your people and see the shame you bring upon them. See them wonder why they wasted their hopes on you!”

Ruby opens her eyes, praying no tears will fall, and looks into the eyes of her followers. No one looks angry, or even disappointed—they look at her with sympathy, with pity. It’s worse. She wishes they would jeer along with the rest of the crowd, wishes they would glory in her ignominious position. As it is, she knows that whatever is about to happen, they will suffer alongside her for it, and treat her differently afterwards.

“Turn over,” says Stella. “Let’s take a look at you.” Ruby does, because the loser must obey the winner of the Challenge, though her muscles protest as she scrambles to lie on her back. Stella settles onto Ruby’s stomach, her ass resting on Ruby’s hips. Her face has all the same bloodlust as before, but it’s tinged with a different kind of eagerness as well. 

Stella grabs Ruby’s wrists and pins them to the ground above her head, moving so her face is directly above Ruby’s own. “How does it feel to lie there, knowing you’re at my mercy?” she taunts.

“Do you want me to beg you to spare me?” says Ruby. “Do what you want. You’ve earned the right. I won’t stop you.” She will keep hold to what little dignity there is left, even in this.

“Oh, I get it,” says Stella, her nails digging into the skin of Ruby’s wrists. “You’re planning to act as though you don’t want this.” She looks up at the crowd, grinning. “We’ll see how long that lasts, won’t we?” Ruby hears laughter. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees some of her own people turning away.

“Hey, none of that,” says Stella. “Your leader is about to put on quite the show for us. So you’ll all stick around. Or our deal’s off.”

If their positions were reversed, thinks Ruby, she wouldn’t be doing quite this much taunting. She doesn’t think. Maybe that’s just wishful thinking. She has to admit she’d be enjoying herself, if she got to wipe that smug smile off Stella’s face.

A dollop of something wet lands on Ruby’s nose and mouth. It takes her a minute to realize Stella has spit on her. She presses her lips together, but Stella forces her mouth back open, and saliva trickles onto her tongue.Her face burns at the indignity.

Stella reaches down and rips open her tunic, pushing the two halves aside to expose Ruby’s small breasts. She pinches the nipples, and Ruby can feel them hardening under the rough touch. Stella tries to rip the top off completely, but when the parts looping over Ruby’s shoulders hold strong, she takes out her knife and cuts it off, severing the garment into several pieces before tossing it into the crowd.

“We won’t be needing that anymore,” she says, and Ruby realizes she’s been left with nothing to cover herself with once Stella has finished with her.

Stella’s hands return to Ruby’s breasts, kneading and twisting viciously. They stay like that for a moment, Ruby held down by nothing but her obligation to her people and the rules of the Challenge. Stella is entitled, now, to do anything she wants to Ruby, and Ruby realizes, her eyes watering as the sharp pain in her nipples intensifies, that Stella intends to take her time.

“What are you thinking about?” says Stella. She releases Ruby’s nipples from her grip, and Ruby forces herself not to moan in relief. “Are you regretting agreeing when I Challenged you? I hope not. I’m having so much fun, aren’t you?”

Titters of laughter from Stella’s half of the crowd. Ruby makes the mistake of looking over at them, and is met with mocking faces. She gets the sense that they’d throw things at her, if Stella wasn’t in the way.

She can’t meet her own people’s eyes.

Stella moves up Ruby’s body until she is straddling her face instead of her stomach. “I bet you know what to do now,” says Stella, gripping a handful of Ruby’s hair. “At least, I hope you do. I’m entitled to use your body—that includes an active tongue.”

This close, Ruby can smell Stella’s arousal, can see it slicking Stella’s thick thatch of pubic hair. She opens her mouth, reluctant yet obedient, and then Stella lowers herself fully onto Ruby’s face.

Ruby knows how to pleasure someone like this, although it’s been a while—she hasn’t taken a lover since before she become the leader of her gang. And she’s never done it quite like this, head pressed against hard ground, struggling to breathe, mouth and nose filled with nothing but the taste and smell of the woman on top of her.

She focuses in on Stella’s clit, licking with firm, even strokes, following Stella’s body’s cues to find the perfect spot. She’ll get Stella off quickly and skillfully, which may be shameful in its own way, but seems less so than revealing even a hint of incompetence.

She can feel herself growing lightheaded, barely able to breathe with Stella grinding so tightly, so constantly, against her. Ruby redoubles her efforts, creating suction with her mouth as her tongue continues to hit Stella’s sweet spot steadily. Stella’s movements atop her grow more and more erratic, her grip in Ruby’s hair tightening, and Ruby resists the urge to change anything up, just continues in her practiced rhythm, letting Stella rub against her frantically, using her for her pleasure.

When Stella comes, she cries out a sharp string of what Ruby assumes are expletives, although they’re different from any Ruby herself would say, full of references to the sun and stars and something about far-off planets. Stella holds Ruby’s head firmly against her cunt as she rides out her orgasm, and Ruby continues her ministrations until Stella pulls back, letting Ruby’s head fall to the ground.

Stella sits back, leaving Ruby gasping for breath. Slick wetness coats the lower half of Ruby’s face, and Ruby knows her hair must be a mess, loose and mussed on the hard ground beneath her.

Stella moves off of Ruby for the first time since Ruby surrendered. She kneels beside Ruby, staring down at her, considering. Ruby had hoped it might be over now, but from the look on Stella’s face she guesses she has something else planned.

Stella unsheathes her knife once again and slices up first one, then the other of Ruby’s pant legs. She pulls the fabric out from under Ruby and tosses it into the crowd as well. Will Ruby have anything left to wear by the time this is over? She imagines being tossed back to her followers, naked and dirty, one final humiliation, and feels the inevitability of the image wash over her. 

Pushing aside Ruby’s underwear, Stella plunges a finger into Ruby’s cunt. It’s sudden enough that Ruby has no time to put up any defences, and she bucks against the sensation before she can stop herself, seeking out the pleasure of the touch. 

Stella laughs. “Looks like you’re enjoying yourself after all,” she says. She removes her finger and brings it, slick with wetness, to Ruby’s lips, pressing it into Ruby’s mouth until she has no choice but to lick the evidence of her own treacherous body’s excitement off the proffered digit.

Stella grabs and pulls at Ruby’s panties and the thin fabric gives way, ripping down the middle until her cunt is fully exposed. Stella rips at the sides as well, then pulls the mangled fabric free and holds it up so Ruby can see.

“You’re so wet I could almost wring this out,” she says. “I’m honestly flattered.”

Ruby would truly not have been this smug, had she come out on top. A quick fuck, that’s all she would have expected of Stella, not something this drawn out, this total. Stella’s lips against Ruby’s cunt, Ruby’s hands yanking her hair, and then she would have been done with it.

She underestimated Stella. And there’s nothing she can do about it now.

If she ever gets another chance to best her, however—she’s only beginning to imagine how deep her revenge will go.

Stella opens Ruby’s mouth and shoves the ruined panties past her lips. She can taste the evidence of her own unwilling arousal, slightly sour against her tongue.

All barriers out of the way, Stella presses her finger into Ruby once again. It would be easier to bear if she were rough, but she isn’t; she’s obscenely gentle, stroking Ruby’s inner walls like a lover. 

“I’m not going to stop until you come,” says Stella conversationally. “You could fake it if you want, I guess, but think about it—would that really be any less embarrassing?” 

Stella removes her finger to spread Ruby’s wetness over Ruby’s clit. The sensation when the tip of Stella’s finger touches Ruby’s clit makes her buck and almost moan. It’s true, in a way—she’s already been stripped bare in front of everyone, mocked and degraded as Stella sat on her face. Why shouldn’t she take what pleasure she can from her ritual defeat?

And besides—if what Stella most wants is to see Ruby humiliated, what better way to resist than to not act humiliated at all?

Stella pushes two fingers into Ruby, and places her thumb on Ruby’s clit, working the pad of her thumb up and down over the hard nub of sensation as she begins fucking into her once again. This time, Ruby does not resist, allowing the pleasure she feels to guide her body, falling into a rhythm with Stella’s hand. 

“Mmm, you like that?” says Stella, voice dripping in mockery. She raises her gaze to the crowd. “She’s finally admitting how much she likes it, getting fucked for my pleasure in front of all of you.”

And oh—there’s that shame again, threatening to wash over her. But this time, Ruby pushes it aside. She fought, and now she is accepting her defeat gracefully—surely there is nothing that is not noble in that.

Stella’s fingers twist, the thumb on Ruby’s clit keeping to its steady, practiced rhythm, and Ruby can feel herself getting close. She squeezes her eyes shut, and thankfully Stella doesn’t comment, just continues to pump her fingers into her, fuck her with the same cocky confidence she does everything, and then, yes, Ruby feels her legs twitch, her cunt spasm, the beginnings of her orgasm preparing to flood through her like the juice from a salvaged battery. 

And then Stella pulls away.

Ruby opens her eyes in shock, confusion, her hips grinding against nothing before she can help herself. Stella is sitting back on her heels. She wiggles her fingers, sleek with wetness, at Ruby, and grins, broad and mocking.

“There,” says Stella, and wipes her fingers on Ruby’s inner thigh, inches from Ruby’s hungry, frustrated cunt. “That’s the look I was waiting for from you.”

Ruby spits the wet wad of her underwear from her mouth. “Fuck you,” she says before thinks better of it. She can’t believe Stella just—tricked her like that, led her on. Convinced her to give in, to play along, to _want_ , and then snatched pleasure away from her, left her so exposed and so unfulfilled.

“Careful,” says Stella, “Or I’ll think you haven’t accepted our terms.”

Ruby can’t afford to have Stella back out of the Challenge now. The idea of having gone through all of that, and not having settled their dispute after all, forcing her people into battle because she couldn’t hold her tongue, is absolutely unthinkable. 

“No, of course not,” says Ruby, trying for contrition, much as it catches on her tongue. “My apologies.”

“Hmm,” says Stella, considering. “I guess I’ll accept that. As long as you thank me. I put a lot into this. I want to see that you’re grateful.”

And there’s the shame, too powerful for Ruby to resist this time. Ruby can feel her face burning, is suddenly once again disconcertingly aware of how exposed she is, lying on her back in the dirt, Stella’s juices drying on her face and her own juices drying on her thigh, her cunt still gaping and twitching from stymied pleasure.

“Thank you,” she manages, because what else can she do?

Stella clicks her tongue. Oh god, she really is enjoying this. “Not good enough. How about, ‘Thank you for fucking me, Stella.’”

Ruby swallows. “Thank you for fucking me, Stella,” she repeats, keeping her voice steady.

“‘Thank you for using me, Stella. Thank you for showing me my place,’” Stella prompts, and Ruby repeats that too, eyes on Stella so as not to be tempted to look at anyone else, see the pity or lust or disgust or mockery or anger that might be forming on the various faces in the crowd. 

“You’re so welcome, Ruby,” says Stella. She gets to her feet, brushes dust off her body so that it falls onto Ruby’s skin, one final indignity. “I think we’re done here, then. Until next time, right?”

“Yeah,” says Ruby, rising as well, and forcing herself to stand tall, proud, despite her disheveled, naked appearance, “Until next time.”

And next time, thinks Ruby as both of them turn to leave, heads held equally high but for very different reasons, she won’t lose.


End file.
